European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 25, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes monday september 25, 1978 Jimmy Breslin new York the Drifting continues. At dinner somebody came Over and began talk ing about a Case in Federal court that involves two taxicab Drivers who figured out the Way to break the coding used on american express credit cards. The taxicab Drivers were Able to produce credit cards with numbers that would Register As valid on the american express computer. They made a couple of Hundred thousand dollars buying airline tickets on credit cards and then peddling them around the Guy said. There s people out there walking the streets who Are going to make fortunes by fooling computers. You Only have to put a Spike into one Bank computer and it s All  i love the idea. And i knew that anything i wanted to know had to be Learned right Here during a minute or so of conversation. There is a newspaper strike in new York. There is nobody to Call at a courthouse because there Are no reporters working there. No newspaper would come into the restaurant later in the evening with a Story that would bring you up to Date on the credit card Case. And there would be nothing about it on television be cause local television stations cannot cover All the actual news. How did they do it i asked the Guy. By Reading hot sheets he said. American express sends out a Booklet containing pages of credit card numbers that Are no longer acceptable. In the Trade this is called a hot Sheet. They kept going through the hot sheets and by figuring out All the bad num Bers they were Able to come up with a system to name the Good numbers the Guy said. What was the system i asked him. I Don t know the Guy said. Two taxicab Drivers who did t get out of High school Fig ured a Way to beat a computer. You ought to go to court and find out about it. The Case is on every  later on somebody talked about a fight be tween puerto Picans and italians in Brooklyn. This is the second or third of these things to happen around the City but nobody knows anything about it because it is the Type of thing a newspaper finds out about first. Only then after Reading the Story in the newspaper does a television station go out and film it. With no newspaper Story there is no television. One morning there was a report on Hijack ers who had boarded a Twa plane at Kennedy Airport. With All the bothersome Security at the Twa terminal How did the hijackers slip through if you began to make Calls to find out about the hijackers you would t be Able to go to court and see How the cabdriver beat the american express computer. Nor would there be time to go into Brooklyn to find out about the racial trouble. But what did it All matter nobody Ever would find out much about any of the topics. Relax and enjoy the Day. But As the newspaper strike in new York goes on the absence of a systematic flow of information creates an uneasiness that spreads beyond just those who work in the business. The effect of this strike and the in ability of the television Industry to even approach newspaper coverage has people Trou bled. There is a Rumor perhaps a radio report maybe they heard somebody talking about it on the subway of racial violence. No one knows the extent of it. And suddenly peo ple find that they feel better with bad news that they know about than with some vague suggestion that All is not Well someplace around them the three new York newspapers Are on strike because management wants to end All at once 50 years of Feather bedding practices in the pressroom. Economics also keeps the television Chan Nels from covering the news. Television news is a Structure geared to defeat itself. In any Given Enterprise always look for the people making the Money. Television news you find has a pay Structure geared to tap dancers. The average news writer in a local television station earns about $22,000 a year. The aver age on camera reporter chosen for looks and speaking ability first earns at least $30,000 a year. A news director of a station in a City As Large As Chicago earns $35,000 a year. The an Chor Man of the 6 o clock news show can make As much As $150,000 and $200,000 a year and he need not know the name of the mayor or the location of City Hall As Long As he knows How to pronounce the names and be a favorite among women Between the Ages of 18 and 39. Television feels that these Are the Only people who watch news shows at 6 o clock at night therefore the entire news show is aimed at them. A business tilted this Way cannot adequately do a news Job. In new York the daily news newspaper now on strike keeps 100 reporters about the streets and has a news budget of $22 million a year. The most successful local Channel the Abc station has 17 reporters an other 20 news writers and producers inside and a budget somewhere around $8 million. Much of its news coverage is first gotten by Reading the daily news. With the paper on strike the station reads nothing and its coverage at night shows it. Things Are happening and nobody knows. The new York strike is also changing the character of news around the rest of the coun try. The orderly exposition of news of the Day usually is decreed by the new York times. Nearly everybody in the news business copies the times. It is pompous and much of the times reads As if it were written in an attic but the paper is unique in the world because it tries to spend All its Money covering the news. The times has More newsmen working in its Washington Bureau than All three major television networks combined. The three net work news shows often look alike because coverage was determined by the first Page of the times that morning. Independent judgment usually is not the business of television news. They simply pick up the times. The times serves the same function for Many other newspapers around the nation. Any debate Over the importance of stories is settled by the position of the stories in the times. Information about the paper s front Page is usually available to the communications Industry about 9 p.m., at which time you learn that one of the stories under discussion is Worth one column head on Page one and the other should be placed on Page 32. With the times not printing this order has become disorder. Television suddenly has presented a series of scattered often mean ingless National news shows. It All comes Down to a question of what news is. And al ways news is an occur Ance that causes a writer or editor to tick. But in television the major people Are the on camera performers and they tick Only when exposed to a camera not to a news Story. In newspapers across the country there simply Are not enough people being paid to read and debate All Day As they do at the times Over the order of importance of things that happen in the world on this Day. So with the times building in Manhattan gloomy and silent pickets strolling outside the significance of news is being misinterpreted nightly around the nation and the people everywhere suffer. This is a strike that is changing the news business in the country just As it is damaging so Many of the people who work in the Busi Ness in new York. C Chicago . News across 1 beam of Light 4 author Horatio 9 kind of lettuce 12 Mouth 13 Garry or Roger 14 Era 15 be a great Success 17 Meadow 18 hawaiian Garland 19 visitor 21 actor al 24 turkish regiment 25 Alfonso s Queen 26 vessel s curved Plank 28 chemical compound 31 Gudrun s husband 33 sob Scot 35 Large Book 36 Small Brooks .18 Moccasin 40 exclamation 59 nevertheless of disgust 41 choir part 43 transfers 45 kind of fir tree 47 Salt 48 i love a 49 manages with item at hand 54 Inlet 55 units of illumination 56 torn or Van Winkle 57 Massachusetts Cape 58 mud Volcano average solution Down 1 Gypsy husband 2 altar Constellation 3 tibetan of 4 French City 5 soothing liquids 6 Sailor 7 Heath 8 entertain sumptuously 9 cancel a meeting 10 curved molding time 27 min. 9-25 answer to saturday s Puzzle. 11 scorch 16 Samuel s teacher 20 endure 21 Bartlett or Anjou 22 against 23 a Bank might do this 27 yelp 29 Send Forth 30 female ruffs 32 evils 34 certain hounds 37 postal requisites 39 dance step 42 Nebraska City 44 River in Asia 45 actress Theda 46idi 50 Bengal native 51 attempt 52 expire 53 choose today s crossword 9-25 Learann Landers dear Ann you printed a column a few weeks ago assuring your readers that the frightening stories about hair Dye causing cancer were based on inconclusive evidence. That column was a great Relief to Many of us. You cited the testimony of can cer specialists with whom you consulted As Well As a Strong supportive statement by one of the country s most distinguished epidemiologists. Bless you for hav ing the courage to Point out that a woman would have to drink approximately 24 glasses of hair Dye a Day in order to get As much Dye As the rats got in the Labora tory tests. Since your column appeared things have been awfully quiet on the hair Dye front. Have you heard anything More please keep us informed. Loyal . Ann fan dear Loyal there is More. As a member of the visiting committee of Harvard medical school i am in close touch with what goes on there. Hear this the results of a new study by a team of Harvard med ical school researchers strongly reinforced the safety of hair dyes. Involved in the study were 123,000 nurses 32 percent of whom had never coloured their hair. These women were from 29 to 56 years of age the Overall incidence of cancer was exactly the same for hair Dye users and non users. These findings held True for each of the Sites studied breast cervix uterus thyroid and skin. So it appears there is now additional evidence that a great Many women were upset needlessly. In All fairness i must say the Media must assume part of the responsibility. Unfortunately scare stories get the attention. In an Effort to attract readers and viewer the Media sometimes reach for the sensational rather than the solid though somewhat duller news. And alas i fear it shall be Ever thus. Dear Ann i wonder How Many women will see themselves in your column today. I la bet Plen  have been married for 18 years to a professional Man who is attractive charming in Excel Lent physical condition and our relationship is viewed by outsiders As Ideal. My women friends keep telling me How sexy he is. Little do they know. Our intimate encounters Are hurried Mechan ical meaningless and for me empty. The Man does t have the faintest notion that he does Noth ing for me. He never asks just gets his and Rolls Over for a Good night s sleep. I d hate to crush his ego by Tell ing him he is a failure As a Lover so please Don t suggest counsel ing. What else can i do unfulfilled in Darien dear in no woman should Tell a husband he is a failure at anything. You should guide him lovingly and let him know what is pleasing to you. Respond with enthusiasm to his attempts to improve. A woman who is unfulfilled and grimly tolerates sex does her husband no favor and she does nothing for herself either. There Are no medals for bedroom martyrs Only bottled resentment that erupts in Strang Ely disguised forms. So Start talking. You Are 18 years late. C 1978 Field enterprises inc